Pl. 43 Hare Squirrel, Douglas Squirrel

DATEVolume I:1849, Volume II:1851, Volume III:1854.Octavo,first edition. DESCRIPTIONThe complete series included 155 lithographs with superb original hand coloring. This is the outstanding work on American mammals done in the 19th century, and Audubon worked for over 10 years to produce it. The media of lithography was perfectly suited to showing the rich textures in the animal's coats. The work was a prodigious attempt to catalog all the North American mammals, something that had not been done before. The field work included a foray to the western frontier by the elder Audubon, who retraced part of the route of Maximilian and Bodmer to Fort Union. The whole is a magnificent record of the wildlife of North America.